TWO FIGHTER PILOTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24573, 3 April 1941, Page 5

TWO FIGHTER PILOTS

DECORATED BY THE KING AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE TWENTY NAZIS BETWEEN THEM (0.C.) LONDON, Feb. 27. Two New Zealand fighter pilots, who have shot down over 20 Nazis between them and have both been shot down twice themselves, received the D.F.C. from the King at Buckingham Palace this week. They are Flight Lieutenant J. N, Mackenzie (Balclutha). grandson of Sir Thomas Mackenzie, a former High Commissioner, and Pilot Officer W. H. Hodgson, Dunedin. [About three weeks later Pilot-officer Hodgson was killed as the result of an air accident.] Both - had many adventures in the Battle of Britain last year. Flight Lieutenant Mackenzie shot down one Nazi after he had chased him at tree top level for miles. Finally the Nazi crashed in a wheat field. He sat on a stock and waved to the New Zealand boy, who waved back. Pilot Officer Hodgson, who was shot down in Belgium and joined a refugee column, is now flying night fighters. These two pilots received their “ gong ” troth the King "at “ Buck House ” in company with four New Zealand bomber pilots—Squadron Leaders A. A. N. Breckon (Auckland), T. Freeman (Dunedin), J. Adams and Flying Officer D. McArthur (Christchurch) v After leaving Buckingham Palace they were received at New Zealand House by the High Commissioner, Mr W, J. Jordan. Courage and Determination

Flight Lieutenant Mackenzie took part in the intensive air fighting covering the Dunkirk operations, and the official citation stated that he had “at all times shown skill, courage, and determination.”- He has shot down nine "certainties.” four; “probables,” and has also damaged many . Nazi craft. . ■' ', ; He has been "obliged to force-land twice. The' first .occasion was during Dunkirk. Early one 'morning his section of Spitfires intercepted a mass of Ju. 88 bombers escorted by Me. 109 fighters. The . New , Zealander made for a formation of five. He got in a burst of fire at one. and then they swung round on his tail. He evaded them, but eventually another Nazi swept down on him out of the sun and put him out of action. The cockpit filled with smoke and glycol. ; The ' cockpit hood would not slide back, and it was impossible to bale out. Fortunately the plane did not catch fire, and a forced-landing was made successfully. - ' flood Nazi Gunner On the second occasion, Flight Lieutenant Mackenzie attacked a Dornler 215, firing at its engines. The Nazi rear-gunner, however, returned an accurate and concentrated fire, and got irv«fficfna good burst that; the New Zealander went down. Once again luck was with him and he landed were two full days. On the first day Flight Lieutenant Mackenzie shotdown a Jieinkel. which crashed at Tonbridge. Otilthe second he sent down: a; Dornier,. 15/oneb'f-ffie 185'brought down that&On another sortie a Messerschmitt was sighted over the Isle of Sheppey. The New Zealander chased the Nazi, who banked steeply round the tree tops during a wild chase across country. Eventually the Nazi went down near Canterbury, and he was the pilot who waved from the wheat stock.

.. Stalking in the Clouds i Another Messerschmitt was sent down alter Flight Lieutenant Mackenzie hid' seen three' of thepi flying in, formation*? He. ‘‘ crept ” up on them,; taking pf the sim and any; 1 settled m behind them. He followed them at 15,000 feet for five minutes, high abpvetlie Thames, which glistened below. IneD he fired at the one at the left-hand side of the formation, and saw it go down. The otherytwo Nazis immediately power-dived l and escaped, to the - New Zealander’s disgust, v : c Once Mackenzie got “lost over France. He was climbing steadily to find the height of the clouds, and was; still in them at 23,000 feet. Diving be-, low the clouds again, he came out at > 4000 feet above St. Omer. But he thought that England lay below, until German. anti-aircraft immediately opened up. and the puffs of the exploding shells attracted the attention of a Nazi patrol, evidently scouting for bombers. As the Germans'wheeled to “investigate” the puffs, the New Zealander dived to ground level, and went roaring across a German aerodrome. Making a circuit by. way of Le Touquet. Jie returned safely to England. Mackenzie has recently taken part in the daylight sweeps over France.

Refugee for 12 Days

Flying Officer Hodgson has. had his full share of excitement. How he was shot down over Belgium and spent 12 days reaching the coast wearing a peasant’s coat which he found at a deserted farm house, has already been reported. , - Pilot Officer J. L. Bickerdike (Christchurch), who has since . been killed, took off with Hodgson in a second Hurricane. He was shot down, too. but met Hodgson at Calais-a fortnight later. German troops were continually searching the long, straggling line of refugees for Britishers, and the New Zealander’s peasant costume prevented detection on several occasions. It was a miserable trek. Turnips and water were the only food. Refugees who had food would not share with ‘ those who had not, and there were many knifings. For two days the coltimn was machine-gunned to make it leave the roads so that advancing German troops could get through. ‘ Three in One Day

Since then Hodgson has shot down four Nazis for certain, with six probables He, too, fought in the August and September “ blitz.” His most exciting day was when He sent down two Germans, and. was himself shot down. Immediately on landing, he secured another Hurricane and got his third German for the day, a Heinkel 111.

Hodgson’s aircraft went down in flames, but had he baled out then it would have crashed in a thickly-popu-lated district. So the New Zealander side-slipped, hoping the rush of wind would put out the flames, which it did. Three Nazis followed him down to finish him off, but a very welcome Spitfire appeared and drove them away. Up in the air again within an.hour or two, Hodgson made a difficult beam attack on a Heinkel while Nazi fighters did their best to drive him off. The rear gunner in the Heinkel was “quietened,” and the aircraft was sent down out of control, and was seen to crash. It was a good day’s work! Fifty for Four

During that period of air fighting .this squadron pf>l2, Hurricanes never met less were eojnprised of bombers, protected by in Kbdays the squadron accounted-for 50 Germans for the loss of fpUr pilots. Hodgson had the misfortune to lose many of his best friends. One of them was a Canadian, who was shot down in flames. In vain he tried to rip away the cockpit hood, but it had jammed In a desperate effort to assist his friend, Hodgson swept down behind the flaming Hurricane and tried to shoot the hood away with his own eight guns. It was no use, for he missed, and in any case he was afraid of shooting the pilot. The Canadian had become engaged only the night before, and a celebration had been fixed for that evening. It was held, but his narpe was never mentioned, according to the fighter pilot tradition.

r RANGE OF PRICES

The following quotations per 1001 b for beef and per lb for mutton, and pigs. are supplied, with a comparison with last week’s prices, by our special representative at yesterday’s Burnside stock sale:— '

rates, which in some cases, was exceeded Best lambs made up to 345, prime from 25s to 275, medium from 21s 6d to 23s 6d. light from 19s. A fairly large yarding of 205 fat pigs came forward, meeting a ready sale. Competition was keen throughout, and prices showed an improvement of 15s per head. Best baconers made up to £4 18s, and best porkers to £3 10s. A small yarding of store pigs was of-

This week. Last week. s. d. s. d. Prime heavy ox beef .. 35 0 34 6 Prime ox < 39 6 38 0 Prime medium ox 37 6 36 0 Ordinary ox . .. .. 35 0 34 0 Extra prime heifers .. 33 0 32 0 Prime heifers 34 6 33 6 Med. and light heifers 32 6 31 6 Extra prime cows 24 6 23 6 Prime cows 26 6 25 6 Med. and light cows .. 21 0 20 0 Prime heavy wethers 0 41 0 41 Light young wethers .. 0 54 0 54 Prime wethers .. .. 0 5 0 5 Med. and light wethers 0 43 0 5 Prime heavy ewes .. 0 24 0 24 Prime ewes 0 23 0 23 Med and light ewes . . 0 24 0 24 Prime heavy lambs .. 0 84 0 84 Prime lambs 0 83 0 83 Med and light lambs .. 0 84 0 81 Prime baconers 0 73 0 7 Med baconers .. .. 0 74 0 61 Heavy baconers .. .. 0 44 0 41 Best porkers 0 73 0 7 Heavy porkers .. .. 0 63' 0 6